Third Regional Working Group IV Meeting on Public Service Delivery, PPPs and Regulatory Reform in Tunis, Tunisia on 16 February 2007

This meeting was organised by the OECD Secretariat and hosted by Tunisia (chair of the Working Group IV) as part of the activities of WG IV of the Good Governance for Development (GfD) in Arab countries Initiative.

Participation

42 participants attended this meeting. In total ten Arab countries were represented: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, the Palestinian National Authority, the Syria Arab Republic, Tunisia and Yemen. Nine OECD countries were present: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey, as well as the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC).

Objectives

The main objective of the Third Regional Meeting of Working Group IV was to provide an opportunity to delegates to review past activities of the Working Group and to set up the future programme of work. The delegates also had the opportunity to present their countries’ advances and experiences in regard to public service delivery, public-private partnerships and regulatory reform.

Policy Dialogue

Delegates agreed that the Good Governance for Development (GfD) in Arab Countries Initiative has contributed to intensive and varied policy dialogue between the OECD and Arab countries, since its launch two years ago. Delegates discussed new means for regulatory reform and improved public service delivery in the MENA region. Participants engaged in an open and constructive exchange on past and future activities.
The review of past Working Group activities focused on:
1. The Second Special Session of the OECD Working Party on Regulatory Management and Reform on 25 April 2006, Paris, France.
2. The Peer-to-Peer Study Visit of Senior Tunisian Officials to Switzerland on Best Practices in Multilingual Legal Drafting and the Training of Jurilinguists on 5-7 November 2006, Bern and Geneva, Switzerland.
3. The Regional Capacity-Building Seminar for Regulatory Quality: Good Practices in Multilingual Legal Drafting and the Training of Jurilinguists, on 27 November 2006 in Tunis, Tunisia.
4. The Regional Capacity-Building Workshop on Public Private Partnerships for Infrastructure Financing on 8 November 2006 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Three sessions were devoted to the planning of the future programme of work of GfD Working Group IV. Arab delegates expressed strong support for the three key elements of the GfD regional policy dialogue in 2007:
1. Regional capacity-building activities on regional priority themes;
2. Peer-to-peer co-operation and partnership projects among Arab and OECD countries at the country level;
3. Indicators and monitoring tools for PPPs, Public Service Delivery and Regulatory Reform.
The discussions focused on the three key areas of co-operation in the framework of Working Group IV: regulatory impact assessment (RIA), regulatory frameworks for public service delivery and the Regional Declaration for Regulatory Quality.

Regulatory Impact Assessment

Several Arab delegates, notably from Lebanon, Jordan and Tunisia, showed interest in moving forward with the implementation of RIA Pilot Projects. The format of these pilot projects would allow systematising the application of RIA in the regulatory process of Arab countries. Arab countries will identify, supported by the OECD Secretariat, country-specific challenges and advantages, and then define targeted regulatory projects to implement systematic RIA processes. The OECD Secretariat will provide back-up and facilitate networking and exchange.

Regulatory frameworks for public service delivery and PPPs

Participants identified preconditions for improved public financial management and public service delivery through PPPs: standardised regulation, accountability of the public service delivery system, quality requirements, high political support and a global perspective. Delegates agreed on the necessity to establish independent instances to control and monitor the respect of regulations, also in view of public scrutiny.

Regional Declaration for Regulatory Quality

In two special drafting sessions, delegates worked on the Draft Regional Declaration of Principles on Regulatory Quality. Delegates from Greece, Lebanon, the Palestinian National Authority, Tunisia and Yemen further discussed the details of the Declaration in an informal framework.

Main Outcomes and future work

1. Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) Pilot Projects. The OECD Secretariat delivered a briefing on tools to initiative RIA and Arab delegates expressed their strong interest in RIA pilot projects. Work commitments from several Arab and OECD countries are expected at the next meeting of the WG on 4 Mai 2007.
2. Regional Declaration for Regulatory Quality. A new version of the declaration containing the inputs of the meetings in Tunisia will be circulated for comments to delegates. Delegates will continue work and prepare at the meeting on 4 May 2007 the endorsement of the declaration at a higher political level.
3. The Egyptian delegate announced the upcoming Regional Capacity Building Seminar on Strategies, Tools and Capacities for Administrative Simplification to be hosted by Egypt in June 2007.
4. Greece and Tunisian delegates envisaged a co-operation project on improvements and innovations in regulatory reform in Greece. Both countries agreed on organising a peer-to-peer study visit.
5. The Birzeit University envisages the launch of an initiative to produce manuals on legislative processes.
6. Jordan expressed his interest to extend the work on oversight bodies.
7. The Turkish delegate has confirmed the interest of Turkey in hosting a regional capacity-building seminar on RIA.
8. The Tunisian Coordinator of the Master’s Course on Multilingual Drafting at the El Manar University announced the intention of creating an institute in Tunisia focused on training officials in the drafting of legislators in a multilingual context.
9. The collection of governance data in the MENA region in the framework of the OECD Government at a Glance Project has been identified as a long term goal.

Documentation

• Agenda (English, French)
• List of Participants

Session 1: Review of Recent Activities on Public Service Delivery, Public Private Partnership
and Regulatory Reform

• Tunisia: Public Service Delivery and PPPs (French)

Session 2: Future Programme of Work: Regulatory Impact Analysis: Guidelines, Regulatory Toolkit and Pilot Studies

• Ireland: Overview on Ireland’s Experiences with RIA
• Norway: Experiences with Regulatory Impact Analysis
• Czech Republic: Integration of RIA in the Decision-making process in the Czech Republic
• Mexico: Regulatory Impact Assessment
• OECD: Regulatory Impact Assessment

Session 3: Future Programme of Work: Regulatory Frameworks for Public Service Delivery and PPPs

• Yemen: Public Private Partnerships in Yemen (Arabic)
• Jordan: Public Private Partnerships in Jordan
• BIAC: Public Management Reform in Turkey

Background Documents:

• Draft Regional Charter for Regulatory Quality (English, French)
• Policy Brief on Tools to initiate RIA
• Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) Pilot Projects
• Norway: Experiences with Regulatory Impact Analysis